Former Houston Rockets star Yao Ming tried to recruit Jeremy Lin during the lockout to play for the Shanghai Sharks, a Chinese team Yao owns, but Lin decided against it, the New York Post reports.

Yao and Lin developed a relationship that started when Lin played in Yao’s charity games in Taiwan and Beijing in August 2010, The Post notes. Yao invited Lin, whose mother grew up in Taiwan, to his charity event after Lin’s senior year at Harvard. The fans in Asia knew of Lin, sources told The Post.

“Yao cares for (Lin’s) well-being,’’ a source said. “He’s that kind of guy."

Had Lin not been picked up by the Knicks, he may have ended up in Shanghai. Had that happened, because of a rule the Chinese Basketball Association passed during the lockout, he would not have been able to return to the NBA until the Sharks’ season was over, and the NBA world would have been deprived of Lin-sanity.

“I actually talk to Yao after every game,” Lin told The Post. “He’s taken me out to eat when I’ve seen him. He’s obviously a role model, big brother and mentor to me. We keep in touch all the time."